The present invention relates to a new process for preparing a 4-acetoxy-3-hydroxyethylazetidin-2-one derivative which has a hydroxyethyl group, wherein the hydroxyl group is protected, at the C3-position and has an acetoxyl group at the C4-position.
It is known that 4-acetoxy-3-hydroxyethylazetidin-2-one derivatives are useful intermediates for preparing carbapenem .beta.-lactam antibiotics such as thienamycin and penem .beta.-lactam antibiotics (cf., for example, Tetrahedron Letters by Reider et al., vol. 23, page 2293, 1982 and Chem. Pharm. Bull. by Yoshida et al., vol. 29, page 2899, 1981).
There hitherto have been known processes for synthesizing 4-acetoxy-3-hydroxyethylazetidin-2-one-derivatives, for instance, synthesis from 6-aminopenicillanic acid (cf. Chem. Pharm. Bull. by Yoshida et al., vol. 29, page 2899, 1981), synthesis from threonine (cf. Tetrahedron by Shiozaki et al., vol 39, page 2399, 1983) and synthesis from aspartic acid (cf. Tetrahedron Letters by Reider et al., vol. 23, page 2293, 1982). However, these processes have a problem that industrially unfavourable heavy metal compounds such as mercury acetate and lead tetraacetate are employed in order to introduce an acetoxyl group into the C4-position of the .beta.-lactam ring.
The inventors found a process for introducing acetoxyl group into the C4-position of the .beta.-lactam ring, at a low temperature, with using a .beta.-lactam compound, wherein N is not protected, having an O-protected hydroxyethyl group at the C3-position and a silylether group at the C4-position (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 258353/1987).